Eco’s miscellany of mystification; A not-at-all-odd American woman; Vehicular “TV-Guide-o-cide!” Making the mathematical mechanical; “Please don’t squeeze the arm, chin!”

PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 6!π SERVED

Schpuzzle of the Week:

A not-at-all-odd American woman

Take the first name of a famous American woman. Replace its last letter with an antonym of “odd.” 

Anagram the result to get a word associated with this American woman’s last name. 

Who is this woman?

Appetizer Menu

Econfusing Appetizer:

Eco’s miscellany of mystification

1. Name a word for what you might use to expand something. That same word is also what you might use to reduce something. 

Note: This word isn’t something like a pump – one that is used to pump water into a swimming pool, or to pump sewage out of a septic tank. The “expansion” and “reduction"  functions of the word we are seeking are completely different from each other.

2. Insert  a vowel within the full name of a well-known actress. Then remove the first four letters of her first name and the last letter of her last name.

The result will be the name of a world capital. 

Who is the actress and what is the capital?

3. Name a breed of dog. 

Reverse the last two letters (or change the vowel sound) of the last syllable, and the result will be a well-known office supply brand. 

What is the dog, and what is the brand?

4. Name something you might use for an external problem. Add one letter somewhere in the word for something you might use for an internal problem. Change that letter to get something you might use for an internal or an external problem. What are the three words?

5. The first and last name of a well-known thespian – one who appeared on stage, film
and television – are the names of two famous opponents. 

Who is this thespian?

Who are these opponents?

MENU

Transformative Slice:

Making the mathematical mechanical

Name something mathematical, in two words. 

Change the first and fourth letters of its second
word to an “e” and “a”. 

Remove a numerical prefix from within the first word. 

Remove the space between the words. 

The result is something mechanical. 

What are these two things?

Riffing Off Shortz And Hochbaum Slices:

“Please don’t squeeze the arm, chin!”

Will Shortz’s February 20th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Alan Hochbaum of Duluth, Georgia, reads:

Name a part of the human body. Insert the name of another part of the human body. You’ll get a brand name found at the supermarket. What is it?

Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Hochbaum Slices read:

ENTREE #1

Take a five-letter synonym of “humbug” or “nonsense.” Take also a three-letter interjection of “disdain” or “contempt” that one may make upon hearing such humbug. 

Change the middle letter in the synonym to a letter that often makes the same sound as that replaced letter. Move the last letter of the interjection to the beginning of the interjection.

Insert the altered interjection somewhere within the altered synonym.

The result is the surname of a puzzle-maker whose first name, spelled backward, is the name of Simba’s spouse.

Who is this puzzle-maker?

What are the synonym and interjection?

ENTREE #2

Name a three-letter object. It can be inside a three-letter or seven-letter thing, both which end in “-en” and are synonyms. You might find the three-letter object within a container in a still-life painting.

Now take a six-letter past-tense verb for what Ishmael Boorg and “the Dude” did. The still-life painting container is also the present-tense form of what Boorg and “the Dude” did.

Insert the three-letter object within the past-tense verb to form an adjective that describes many a broncobuster.

What are the object and the two synonymous places where it might be?

What did Boorg and “the Dude” do?

What adjective describes many a broncobuster?

Hint: The three-letter object rhymes with the first syllable of a noun that describes Ishmael Boorg or “the Dude.”

ENTREE #3

Take a six-letter synonym of “to make.” Insert within it something found in the
center of drupaceous things, like a cherry or peach, to make a nine-letter verb that means “to make a crackling sound,” like a Rice Krispie, for example.

What are this six-letter synonym and nine-letter verb? 

What is found in the center of something drupaceous?

ENTREE #4

Dean was depressed, downcast and dejected, so he foolishly ______ a quart of bourbon. Insert a synonym of “center” near the center of the six-letter verb that belongs in that blank. 

The result, which begins with a “d,” is a synonym of “depressed, downcast and dejected.”

What are the verb in the blank and the synonyms of “center” and “depressed?”

ENTREE #5

Name, in four letters, a crispy or soft corn or wheat tortilla that is folded or rolled and stuffed with a mixture (as of seasoned meat, cheese, and lettuce) that one might enjoy for breakfast. 

Alas, a troublesome and mischievous mythological being similar to a fairy or demon is just tiny enough to be hiding within the tortilla along with the stuffed mixture.

Mix up the three letters in this being and insert them in the center of the four-letter tortilla. 

The result is a brand of breakfast punch with which you might wash down the tortilla and tiny demon. 

What are this breakfast tortilla, tiny demon and punch?

ENTREE #6

Take a two-word brand name found at the supermarket. Remove the first two and final two letters from the brand. The remaining letters spell a two-word description of either:

1. Turkey, Morocco, Ireland or Mauritania, because they consume so much tea, or

2. China, Brazil, Mexico or Germany, because they produce so much beer.

Now take the two pairs of letters you removed. Place them side-by-side to form a verb that is the root of the word that precedes “... the sick” in The Classic Hippocratic Oath.

A synonym of this verb is another verb for a process that is applied to products bearing the two-word supermarket brand – a process that preserves the products with salt and nitrites.

What is this brand name? 

What is the synonym of the 4-letter verb formed from the beginning and ending letter-pairs of the brand?

ENTREE #7

Take a two-word brand name found at the supermarket. The first two letters and last three letters, side-by-side, spell a word associated with kindness, being and milk.

The four remaining letters, in order, if you advance each of them two places later in the circular alphabet, spell a type of thin, flat bread that can be separated to form a pocket that you can use to hold leftovers from the brand-name supermarket item.

What is the two-word brand name?

What is the word associated with kindness, being and milk?

What is the type of thin, flat bread?

ENTREE #8

Name parts of the human body that you have more than 650 of. Take the etymolological root of each such body part, which is a five-letter English word for a certain small creature.

Insert seven letters within this English word, then divide the result into two words of seven and five letters. 

These words form a brand name beverage found at the supermarket.

The seven letters you inserted can be anagramed to form a three-letter substance and a four-letter place where that substance would surely melt.

What are this brand name beverage, 650 body parts and small creature?

What are the substance and place it would melt?

ENTREE #9

Name an eight-letter hyphenated brand of a product you pour or squeeze. The first two and last two letters, side-by-side, spell product whose brand names include: Mommy’s Time Out, Middle Sister, Arrogant Frog, Bohemian Highway, Red Guitar, Running With Scissors, Bearitage, Cat’s Pee on a Gooseberry Bush, Goats Do Roam In Villages, Ten Minutes By Tractor, Rocket Science and Mad Housewife.

The remaining letters, in order, if you advance them 12 places later on in the circular alphabet, spell an Italian mountain.

What are this brand name and mountain?

Hint: Place after the brand name something the mountain is famous for spewing. The result is a British rock band that achieved success in the early-to-mid-1970s.

ENTREE #10

Note: The following NPR riff-off puzzle is the brainchild of our friend Plantsmith, whose “Garden of Puzzley Delights” puzzle feature appears regularly on Puzzleria!

Name a well-known beverage brand. Move its first letter to the end and change a vowel to another vowel. The result is a word for body
parts associated with a second beverage.

What are the beverage brand, body parts and second beverage?

Hint: The beverage brand begins with a four-letter word that sometimes precedes a small spherical legume, and ends with a five-letter pome fruit.

Dessert Menu

Edutainment Dessert:

Vehicular “TV-Guide-o-cide!”

Name an edutainment vehicle, as seen on TV.
 Replace a vowel with a different vowel. 

The first half of the result spells a vehicle. The second half, if rearranged, also spells a vehicle. 

What are these three vehicles?

Every Friday at Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! we publish a new menu of fresh word puzzles, number puzzles, logic puzzles, puzzles of all varieties and flavors. We cater to cravers of scrumptious puzzles!

Our master chef, Grecian gourmet puzzle-creator Lego Lambda, blends and bakes up mysterious (and sometimes questionable) toppings and spices (such as alphabet soup, Mobius bacon strips, diced snake eyes, cubed radishes, “hominym” grits, anagraham crackers, rhyme thyme and sage sprinklings.)

Please post your comments below. Feel free also to post clever and subtle hints that do not give the puzzle answers away. Please wait until after 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesdays to post your answers and explain your hints about the puzzles. We serve up at least one fresh puzzle every Friday.

We invite you to make it a habit to “Meet at Joe’s!” If you enjoy our weekly puzzle party, please tell your friends about Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! Thank you.